“Teller said Grayden’s been released.”
“Thank fuck,” Callum breathed, sinking down in his seat. He grabbed a packet of cookies.
But Ashford hadn’t said a word.
With everything else that had happened today, all the terrible ups and downs, I’d officially had enough.
“Teller’s bringing Grayden here,” I said, glaring at Ashford. “Are you going to leave?”
“Do you want me to?”
“Of course we don’t,” Grace cut in. “But you’re the one who’s refused to see him.”
Ashford glanced to the side, his knee bouncing, hands flexing. Like he might take off any second.
“I’m here for Piper,” he said. “That’s it.”
Callum stood up abruptly. “Grace, want to help me look for decent coffee? I have a theory it’s got to be in this hospital somewhere.”
She rolled her eyes. “We’re having a grown-up conversation right now, Cal.”
“Yeah, which might be easier one-on-one.” He gave her a complicated look. Grace scrunched up her face. Callum wiggled his shoulders.
Their silent sibling communication was really weird sometimes.
But whatever Callum had been conveying to her, she finallygot it. Grace jumped up. “Coffee. You’re right, Piper loves good coffee. Let’s try to find some.”
As they left, Ashford was shaking his head. “So you’re my one-woman intervention, is that right? Everyone thinks I suck, and it’s your job to tell me so.”
I moved to the seat beside him, handing him a chocolate bar. “I’d rather call it an open dialogue between friends.”
He ripped the candy wrapper and took a bite. When he finished chewing, he said, “I just don’t get it. How easily you all trust him again.”
“It wasn’t easy.”
Ashford’s mouth tightened into a flat line. He set the rest of the candy bar aside.
“You know what wasn’t easy? Going through all the shit I did without my older brother. Maisie being born. My wife dying. Everything that happened when Emma came into our lives. For the last fifteen years, I haven’t had an older brother at all.”
“If you let him explain?—”
“Fuck that, Piper,” he hissed. “Grayden abandoned us just like our father did. He abandonedme, andIbecame the oldest brother whose job was to take care of everyone else. And you know what? I did it. I stepped up.”
Ashford was keeping his voice down, but every word was raw and bleeding with emotion. Like a knife blade to his soul.
“You did,” I said.
“So don’t sit there and tell me I should forget all that pain.”
“Grayden was in pain too. So much. There are important things you don’t know. He tried to come back here after he got out of prison, and Callum sent him away.”
“I already know. It was too late then. Too late now.”
“But you’re still hurting, aren’t you? What if the rest of us are right? Grayden wants to be your brother again and make up for what went wrong in the past. What’s the harm in just hearing what he has to say?”
“What’s theharm? If I trust him, accept his empty apologies,he could let us down all over again. I’d be the biggest idiot in the world.”
“You don’t want to get hurt again.”
